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Farming Today: 25/05/21 - Paying farmers to retire, re-introducing beavers and farm shops in lockdown

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25/05/21 - Paying farmers to retire, re-introducing beavers and farm shops in lockdown

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 25/05/21 - Paying farmers to retire, re-introducing beavers and farm shops in lockdown

Paying farmers to retire: it may sound new but the EU's version didn’t work.

The Government is consulting on a scheme to pay farmers to retire. It may sound new, but a similar EU scheme ended just a few years ago, because it didn’t work.

A new exit scheme for farmers has just been put out to consultation - it will pay between £50-100,000 as a one-off payment for older farmers to stop work. The DEFRA consultation document says “this will make more space for the next generation of farmers, as well as providing opportunities for existing farmers who wish to expand to improve their profitability.” But paying farmers to leave is not a new idea: what can be learnt from the previous scheme under the Common Agricultural Policy, which was discontinued because it didn’t work?

Beavers have already been re-introduced to several sites across the UK to help control water flow and reduce flooding downstream. For the first time, a community-led project is being proposed, around the village of Braunton in North Devon. Over a million pounds has been spent on flood engineering work in Braunton, but it hasn’t worked. Instead, so far nearly 50 landowners have committed to the idea of introducing beavers.

And will you Stay Local? Over the last year many people started to shop locally for food, and farmers around the country stepped up, changing the way they supply food to their local community, and meeting a new demand. But will that new supply chain continue?

Presented by Anna Hill
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

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